Tag: black diamond

The Oscars…it’s a show that’s all about the audience, and an event where you’ll be less likely to find faux pearls than faux pas…but, rather than focusing on the award-giving awkwardness that occurred, we’re here to shine a spotlight on the many fabulous adornments that decorated the attendees!

The 2017 Oscars were an excellent opportunity for fabricators of fashion to show off their wares to an audience of roughly 32.9 million prospective buyers; by simply tuning in, viewers were immediately exposed to an abundance of beautiful looks and how to wear them. Many of these fashions were tried-and-true staples (Dakota Johnson’s necklace was literally borrowed from a museum!) hearkening back to an “old hollywood” glamour. Many of the winsome wearers, however, chose to go another route with bold and edgy choices that explored the very latest frontiers in jewelry trends.

…It should come as no surprise to anyone who has visited the Eve Alfille Gallery & Studio, then, that not a few of these looks were similar to trends which Eve has also explored through her chosen medium of jewelry. Read on to see examples of how the spirit of the red carpet and the imagination of Eve share the same spirit of exploration and high glamour!

Long & Layered, His & Hers

They may be a girl’s best friend, but there’s no reason that diamonds can’t look dreamy on men, too! In a characteristically bold look, Pharrell Williams embellished his Chanel wardrobe with a brooch in 18K white gold, diamonds, and cultured pearls. His long, luxurious necklaces especially evoke the classic, diamond-laden looks that Eve has crafted, such as her “Odalisque” or “Morning Run by the Lake” black-and-gray diamond necklaces.

Miss Matching

Birds of a feather may flock together, but sometimes we mammals like to switch things up! Actress Saoirse Ronan played the matchmaking game with a pair of green and white earrings, not at all unlike Eve’s “Birds of Passage” earrings (which feature one white and one peacock-green South Seas pearl each!).

Contoured Couture

Isabelle Huppert wowed crowds with an Armani gown and a fitted earring cuff that traced the silhouette of her ear with shining gem-studded brilliance. A fresh and modern statement piece, this look bears resemblance to Eve’s “Lilith” earring from her “Garden of Eden” series. Also contoured to the outside of the ear, this piece features an 18 karat white gold design with a suite of shimmering diamonds sure to update any look.

Welcome to Eve J Alfille Gallery & Studio’s new jewelry series, “Jazz Age”. Take a moment to explore the thoughts, inspirations and creations of the Artist’s Statement.

In French schools, the recent past is not taught: too fresh to be history, it may revive controversy. So my high school classes learned all about Versailles and the Baroque style, but nothing about Art Deco, or jazz. Though ‘The Jazz Age’ usually denotes a period in the late 1920’s, its great innovations in style extended long past the 1929 crash. The elegance of Art Deco, coupled with its practicality and relative simplicity, “suggesting better times”, still speaks to us today.

As a child, what had impressed me was the wild romanticism of Art Nouveau, the Paris Metro entrances, the soaring street lights with their sweeping curves. On the other hand, I had nothing but contempt for my parents’ 1940’s furniture, with their restrained, stylized curves, the symmetry and repetition of the little corner motifs, chevrons carved and inlaid in contrasting wood. A frisson ran down my spine recently when, in a 2012 auction catalog I spied those exact armchairs, an Art Deco exemplar, quoted for an extremely handsome sum! How I wish I

“Jazz Age” Featured Earrings and Necklace

had them now!

We revere the elegance of this style: ever modern, it can be treated sumptuously with rare materials, like the inlaid Jean Dunand screen I almost bought in Switzerland in 1981, when we spent a couple of years in Geneva, and my mother-in-law’s diamond brooch. But it had also formed a background of our growing years in its more humble interpretations, the facades of the movie theaters in our small towns, the old Philco radios with the pleated wood cases, the streamline toasters of our early years.

I love the functionality, the stylishness: Art Deco is above all a way of seeing, it looks at the pure geometry of everyday objects, the sun, fountains, ocean liners, the pyramids, and translates them into flat decorative motifs that are at once restrained and joyous! For me, what inspired my current Jazz Age series is the particular duality of the style: how it makes room for both movement and repose, exuberance and severity, inspiration from current times and times past. What other decorative style can throw together speedy trains and ancient pyramids, maybe both in the same piece?

“Jazz Age” pendant

In this series, I have to remind myself to proceed past restraint: it’s permitted to be joyous, even with nothing but the black, white and gray diamonds and pearls! And no problem letting rubies in, just remember to color within the lines! So we will work from both ends, the pastels of moonstones, Ceylon sapphires and opals, and the glorious reds, oranges and yellows of jades, citrines, topaz and rubies. I design, hearing the jazz of Coltrane and Davis, the coolness and the splendor alternating. White gold and palladium for coolness, blush gold for delicacy, all are playing a role in my new Jazz Age series.